Another Australian-designed wave energy project has been deployed, with the completion this week of the 250kW bioWAVE pilot demonstration unit off the Victorian coast near Port Fairy. The $21 million project has been in development by Sydney and US-based company, BioPower Systems, for three years, with $11 million funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) and $5 million funding from the Victorian Government. [?]

Victoria's first prototype wave power unit is ready to be installed off the state's south-west coast later this year, with its builders saying it could be the start of a "new era" for renewable energy. If successful, the $21-million project, undertaken by BioPower Systems Pty Ltd, is expected to feed 250 kilowatts of renewable energy into the national grid. [?]

Australian energy companies are facing a "perfect storm" as renewable alternatives are hastening the move to off-grid electricity. Earlier this month US energy giant Brookfield announced it had signed a deal with property group LWP to build a new suburb near Newcastle, NSW, powered entirely off-grid, challenging incumbent industries to adapt or perish. The move has enormous implications for rural and regional communities throughout Australia where the tyranny of distance has often led to towns becoming stranded at the far end of a very long energy line. [?]

Back in November, SolaRoad launched a test bike path that generates energy through solar cells embedded in the concrete. It sounds like an outlandish idea, but it's apparently paying off very quickly. [?]

Gemmell set up Solar Choice â a solar project broker and consumer comparison service â while still in his legal chambers and he is now the proponent of what stands to become the largest solar farm in the country, perhaps the world. [?]

Want to put a little zoom in your shopping bag? Besides browsing for clothes, bags and accessories at Urban Outfitters, you'll be able to pick up a Jetson electric E-bike for $1,900 online and at select stores, too, according to a Jetson spokeperson. The companies plan to formally announce the partnership on Friday. [?]

It has now been more than 45 days since Solar Impulse took off from San Francisco for an across-the-nation journey powered only by the sun, and already thereâs fatigue in some corners. When Solar Impulse finally landed in Washington, DC this weekend, there were no jubilant crowds of the type that met Charles Lindbergh when he arrived in Paris after his epic transatlantic flight. [?]

At last count, officials were attributing more than 100 deaths to Hurricane Sandy. Some patterns emerged in mapping the deaths in the region. Elderly residents were hit especially hard, with close to half of the people who died age 65 or older. In New York City, the majority of deaths occurred in Queens and on Staten Island, and most people perished at the height of the storm, drowned by the surge. [?]

OWNERS and tenants are moving into one of Melbourne's first apartment buildings to achieve a four-star Green Star rating. Lend Lease's newly completed Serrata building, a bold sculpted-concrete complex in Docklands, gained its green credentials from innovative design rather than expensive features, according to its architect, Robert Stent of Hayball. [?]

Renault's Twizy is an enigma in the vehicle world. Its fluid, skull-shaped, monospace plastic body secured to a deformable tubular steel chassis is too narrow, according to Renault, to require a rear window. It operates with or without doors, and for another two months at least it won't have the option of zip-in windows. [?]

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